Ahead of her all night ‘From Dark Till Dawn’ BBC Proms show at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday August 8th, Anna Lapwood has today released her new track ‘An Irish Blessing’ with The Pembroke College Chapel Choir, a track Anna composed as an end of an era as she steps down from her role as Director of Music at Cambridge’s Pembroke College to focus full-time on her career as an organist.
“I very rarely compose, but when I do it’s always in response to people or a particular situation. In this case, I wrote ‘An Irish Blessing’ as a parting gift for one of Pembroke’s organ scholars, Andreana, who was graduating back in 2024,” Anna said of the track. “As often seems to be the case, I came up with the idea very last minute and so wrote the piece about 24 hours before its first performance, our final concert of the academic year. We then had to engineer an ‘emergency’ that Andreana had to go and deal with (3 soloists pretending they were really struggling with the notes so desperately needed a sectional), buying us 15 minutes to quickly circulate the copies and rehearse the piece without her noticing. We then performed it as an encore to the concert, and somehow managed to keep the entire thing a surprise until the moment it was performed – quite something with more than 50 singers to coordinate! Now it takes on a new meaning again as I say goodbye to Pembroke myself after 9 years as Director of Music. I would like to dedicate this to all the amazing singers and organists I have had the privilege of working with over the past 9 years: thank you for being a continual source of inspiration and joy.”
The artwork for the piece was done by Scottish musician and artist Kirsty Matheson who paints music using both her synaesthesia where music literally makes her see colours and shapes, and her years as a professional musician where she can hear all the many layers and different styles in music. “When I was asked to paint Anna’s new release with the Pembroke Choir, I was so excited to get to show people what this music sounds like,” Kirsty said. “I see sound and this music is so full of positivity, of joy and of colour. All the colours, the feeling of joy that you can see in my painting, you will hear in this wonderful music. It truly shines and listening to it and painting it has been a beautiful privilege.”
Listen to ‘An Irish Blessing’ here – https://AnnaLapwood.lnk.to/IrishBlessingPR
Anna performs a very special all night BBC Proms show ‘From Dark Till Dawn’ at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday August 8th and will return for a run of UK Christmas shows through December including a date at Royal Albert Hall on December 18th
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